The Divorced, Broke, and Fearless Journey to Six-Figure Vacation Rental Success

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Introduction

Hello everyone. Welcome or welcome back to the filthy rich cleaners podcast. I am your host, Stephanie from serene clean, and today’s lovely guest, who is coming from Texas for us is MIA Arzoo, and she is the owner and founder of Hostkeyper, and she has so much amazing advice for you guys, specifically when it comes to short term vacation rentals, because she exclusively does it. Do you guys do other types of cleaning? What it’s your bread and butter, right?

Mila: That’s right. Only Airbnb cleaning. Sometimes somebody might call me and say, we have a construction cleaning. Okay, we might do that.

Stephanie: That’s amazing. I’m so fascinated anytime I talk to an owner who does exclusively vacation rental turnovers, I have just a million questions. So before we get into that, you have quite the story of how you got into the business, because cleaning was not your background. You actually were, well, tell me about your traveling experience, because you were traveling over in Asia, right?

From Corporate Life to International Adventure

Mila: I grew up in traditional society, just like everybody else you know, you think the way that your parents want you to think, my parents are immigrants, and so I did the thing where you go, you finish high school, you go to college, you get married, and you’re supposed to do all everything after that. So what happened was I got fired from my job, my job, it was kind of a pivotal moment of my life. You know, I got fired from my corporate job, my first job out of college. And it was you feel the shame and all that stuff that supposedly supposed to come with it and try to find another job. And I was, You know what? This is my time. I was still young. I mean, you know, 24 I got married, but it didn’t have any kids. So I was, I can still get out of this. So I actually had to get out of it because my ex did not like the fact that I was trying to support myself. I guess when he even told me, Don’t ask me for money. Your money is your money, he was a 50/50 dude I don’t like sounds like a…

Stephanie: Catch. Well, divorce, Hey buddies, second time’s a charm, right?

Breaking Free and Moving Abroad

Mila: Well, you know, you’re brainwashed to think one thing and how things are going to get better. No, live your life. So what happened was, I got fired, and I got the divorce, and then I was, You know what? I’m not being supported by anybody. I’m leaving. So that’s when I just, I was talking to a friend in Korea. She’s from Houston, but her husband was working in Korea because he was in oil and gas, and Houston is real big oil and gas. Most everybody’s in oil and gas over here. So she’s, I just had a baby come visit me. I need friends too, you know? I need somebody to hang out with, and I was having a hard time. So she’s, come over here. So I stayed with her for one month, but then I went to the capital Seoul for another month, and in that first month, I got a job in four days, working at a bar. I never worked at a bar in my life, but the lady became really nice, and I had a great time. She let me drink. I mean, it was the best time. Why not? You know, she’s, if the boys want to buy you drinks, you can take it. You don’t have to drink it, but you can take it if you want. Amazing. You can throw it away too. Just take the money. I was, Okay, girl, no problem. After that in that time, you kind of break away from how you the norms, right? You live in a different culture, society altogether. They have they do things differently. You see things differently, and the things that you believe before is not really what is actually true, but you learn that in the time of, I guess, isolation, basically because Korean people, they’re culturally xenophobic, which is not a bad thing, but they stick with themselves, you know, because their culture is very deep, and I can I understand that, but at the same time, I think it’s good to observe. It’s good to see how other people interact and support each other.

Stephanie: Fascinating, and especially you know, I have heard that before that, no matter what, even if you live there your whole life, polite, but still very much, you’re an outsider.

Teaching English and Learning Business Skills

Mila: Right, right? That’s interesting. Yeah, it’s interesting to see. And learn. So I was there, and so I still kind of had, I was kind of isolated, right? Because I didn’t have that many Korean friends. My Korean friends were my the teachers that I because I ended up teaching, actually, by the way, I wasn’t working on the bar the whole time. I actually stayed there for a month and then went to Seoul for a month just to explore. I went to a bunch of meetups, and just met people. I did capoeira. I was just living there and a prison cell. They have these little boxes that you can stand up and touch each side. Oh, my God. I was not there most of the time. I wasn’t sleeping. I was out doing stuff and hanging out. So I ended up coming back home for the fingerprints and all that stuff you gotta do before you become a teacher. So what happened, actually, was I met a boyfriend the first month. He’s actually, he was actually from Russia. So he was, You should stay here. You should he’s, You speak great English, you have a degree, you can be a teacher here. And I was, Are you sure they’re going to hire me? He’s, anybody will hire you? And he it was true, because I would at the time there was Skype. So I would Skype my friends at the cafes during the day, and people who own schools would be, Hey, your English is good. Do you want to teach at my school? I can get a job and stay here. So I did. I came back home for one month, and then I went back for a year and a half, and I ended up, yeah, teaching English to Korean kids. I was the fun English teacher. I only worked 20 hours a week. They’re paying me $2,000 a month, and they paid my rent in my hotel, my apartment.

Stephanie: Deal, yeah, yeah. So it gave me time to think, because actually, before I left, I started a wedding dress business, and it didn’t take off. And I was, okay, that’s why I was Okay, I definitely need a break, just time to figure out what I’m going to do when I go back home eventually, right? So at the time, I was listening to a lot of podcasts and reading a lot of books. So while I was in Korea, because I only worked 20 hours a week, I spent the other time they had these internet cafes called Ginja bomb, and it’s really fancy, by the way, that big screens, there’s a smoking area if you smoke, there’s ramen, if you want to order ramen and be on the computer. It was really nice. So I was spent, and it was cheap too. So I spent hours learning how to build a website and learn SEO, learn SEO so that you have an advantage when you What year was this?

Stephanie: Just so I what’s the timeline here, where we at

Learning Digital Skills Abroad

Mila: 13, 20? 13, I was spending a lot of time, and I was listening to a lot of Pat Flynn’s podcast.

Stephanie: OG, yeah, that’s a very OG, yeah.

Mila: No, he was dropping bombs in the beginning. So I was learning, I was learning everything. It was a blessing. So I traveled. And while I was there in Korea, of course, I went to the nearby countries, I went to Japan, I went to Taiwan, I went to Indonesia, and then I ended up when I finished my time there in Korea, and before, I wanted before I came. I didn’t want to come straight home, because that’s boring. Why would I do that? I was still trying to run away. So, so I was, Okay, actually, in Korea, when you leave, when when you teach there and you leave after one year, I think they give, they give you $5,000 I don’t know, every year they give you for every year you do, but they send you off with 5000 bucks. I’m, I’m going to travel with that money before I walk home. And so, and, yeah, it’s not a lot of money, but for six months it I didn’t even use it all, because, you know, I know how to save money, but and Asia is really cheap, by the way, you can save places for $10 a night, and it’s very decent and nice. So I did, I did all of that. I did six months of traveling alone just trying to figure out what’s going on here on Earth, and when I and so my brother had called me and he said, I’m having a kid I’d like for you to be around. And I’m, Okay, well, I guess I’ll go and so that’s how I ended up coming back after a year and a half. Mm hmm. And it was a bit of a struggle, because his girlfriend and I, she didn’t like me, so I couldn’t stay with him very long, and I didn’t have a place to stay, so I bounced around. I had I stayed at a friend’s house on his sofa for two months. And even around that time, I stayed in Austin. So that’s how I came up with the housekeeper idea, the idea of vacation rental cleaning.

The Hostkeyper Business Idea

Mila: So what happened was, I was in Austin because I came back with a travel app idea. I was gonna be this travel app warrior, you know, gonna be, you know? Anyways, it did not happen. It’s still a great idea, but whatever. So I’m trying to find a partner for this travel app in Austin, Texas, because, you know, I’m from Houston, so Austin is close enough to home, and I didn’t find a partner. But what happened was, I stayed at one Airbnb where she rented out each room. So it was a four bedroom. And she was even when I want, when somebody wants to rent my main bedroom, I just go stay at my boyfriend’s house. I prepare and and she, I thought she had it really nice, because she had the living room and the kitchen, a shared space. She had little notes, the dishwasher is clean, it’s dirty. When you go into your room, it had the key waiting for you. So you It’s your own key to your room, and the bed was made hotel style, tucked in and, you know, folded out, and then it had a mint on there with a piece of paper with the Wi Fi information coffee shop type of stuff. So I was, I like this, when I get my life together and have a house. I want to have a house so that I can do this and then travel, but then who’s going to take care of my house so on, this made up idea I started Housekeeper.

Stephanie: Yes, well, it’s amazing how things, little things like that, can trigger, I know the solution here, I can be the one. It’s just most people don’t actually, somebody needs to do something about this, but most people don’t are not the somebody, you know, but you were the somebody.

Mila: Yes, that’s a great mention that you said that, because I just talked to somebody last week, and he said, everybody wants to sit at the table, but nobody wants to build a table.

Stephanie: I love that. It’s just like, you know, when you do reach any type of measure of success, and the whole must be nice, you know, thought process. Yeah, you’re right. It is nice. It is nice. I built this i It’s very nice.

Mila: That’s true Exactly. My brother used to be must be nice all the time. And I was, listen, I built this life. Okay? I came from the same household as you so don’t come. Must be nice me. You know, I’m saying

Stephanie: They could do it, and that’s the thing, the way I see it, you know, it’s, if they’re saying that, that means that they’re gonna, you know, it’s a very victim mindset of, you know, you can’t have that same thing. You know, it’s, or at least we can put ourselves out there, you know, absolutely,

Mila: Absolutely, and I put myself way out there. So I’m, do not, must be nice to me. I ordered all of this. Yeah,

Starting the Cleaning Business

Stephanie: Okay, tell me. Tell me first cleaning, tell me about that first, three month period of I’m going to do this. What? How did you go about it?

Mila: Oh my gosh, that was obvious. Probably the hardest part, you know, starting and believing in yourself and thinking that you’re going to get a customer and eventually be a business owner, super scary, because I, I’ve always kind of been think big, think to the top. So I’m, oh, worldwide, blah, blah, blah. But in real life, in real life, you gotta, you’re packing up your your trunk with all your mop and stuff and your vacuum and doing this stuff. So I actually started, I knew that I wanted to do vacation rental cleaning, but at the same time, I’m I didn’t, I did some research, but just because I’m more of an intuitive person, hearing about Airbnb is more than researching how many Airbnbs I’m going to have an opportunity to clean. So my first cleans were off Thumbtack. Oh, okay, yeah.

Finding First Clients Through Thumbtack

Stephanie: Posting owners were posting they were looking for cleaners,

Mila: Right? Exactly? Owners were posting looking for cleaners. I spent a lot of time looking if they wrote a note that it was big str, you know, short term rental or something like that. And that was a long time looking. But just I, I took, I took some action. I knew that I had to move with the business. So even though I that’s not the cleaning I wanted to do, I knew that it’s kind of the similar moves you gotta make, right? You still gotta learn what kind of chemicals you’re going to bring, what kind of materials you’re going to bring, supplies. Gotta walk through the front door, find the apartment, all that stuff is a little bit of skill, you know, just getting out of your comfort zone and going into somebody’s house and cleaning it most of the time they were there. That’s weird. I mean, it’s normal, you know. But if you’re not used to that’s a weird feeling and thing to do. So it was actually good, because it’s a learning experience. So when I started cleaning, so how I got my first Airbnb cleans is I buckle down. I’m, I’m building this website. Because I would think, Oh, I should start the business. Oh, I don’t have time, oh, I should start I don’t have nothing else to do. I don’t have a job, and I’m my apartment. I paid my the apartment I got because I didn’t have a job. I paid it half up front, because I ended up living in the ghetto, because it was $3,000 for half the month. And then I convinced them that I was good for it, you know, that I’ll pay the other half or something. So I literally had six months to figure out what I’m going to do to pay the other six months, that’s how dire it was. No money. So I knew I had to get things rolling anyway, because time is running out.

Building the Website and First Customers

Mila: So I did those motions. So the first time is, I built the website in a weekend, because I’m, I already know how to do this. I did it playing around back in 2013 13 now. Now we’re talking 2016 I was playing around with that stuff. Anyways, I knew how to do it. So I’m, let me build a website. Let me perfect the SEO. Because I know, personally, I don’t feel comfortable in sales at the time. Now I’m much better at it, because real rich people know how to sell, you know, so I want to be real rich people, so I’m going to learn how to sell. That’s how I took it. But at the time, I’m, I don’t know how to sell so I’m where my people gonna be at. They’re gonna be online, and I’m gonna have to sell myself as nicely as I can, using the website, trying to look professional that I’m a bigger than I am. So that I did that, it worked, and I got my first two customers in the first week, I, posted it on Sunday or Monday, and by Friday or Saturday. I had meetings with my first two clients, and they took me very well. It was nice. They’re, you know, I’m gonna check and I try to make sure that I, cross all my T’s and dotted my eyes. I’m, please come after I’m done cleaning so that if you want to critique it you want something done, change whatever. Let me know I’m open book, I’m willing to do it all over again, you know. And so they got, I got a lot of good reviews from them. One of them gave me a great tip. Was I cleaned it and I used to close all the doors. And he said, Well, this is a vacation rental, and most of the time, people want to feel welcome, and they don’t want to a space where all the doors are closed, especially it’s not their house. So I was, That’s a great tip. So I made sure I cracked, you know, the bathrooms and all the doors were for the rooms were wide open. It’s just little things that I was, I was willing to keep learning, because I knew that nobody had really established how to clean vacation rentals you can find, you know how to clean residential or commercial, almost anywhere, but that was a new development, okay, I’m going to write a lot of notes. Because, remember, I always thought big. I’m, this is going to be a big thing. So I was always right. Every after every clean, I would write notes oh, man, this took forever. Why? Why do you take forever? Because there was pet hair. The pet hair took about an hour. So now I’m charging. You know, a lot of people tend to do air reviews and complain oh, there was that pet hair, and they didn’t pay me. The problem is you have to learn that you are the boss, not the boss. So I’m, Okay, well, an extra hour for that. So it came to a point where there is no question about pricing too, because a lot of times when you when anybody is buying for buying something, they don’t like to be surprised. So I noticed that if you’re cleaning, especially a cleaner and says, Well, it’s gonna cost more, it triggers people, yeah, you very much. Yep, you’re gonna,

Stephanie: Make, gonna make people mad, because it’s expectations, not, it feels like you’re you’re trying to pull the wool over or bamboozle them, even though that’s not your intention. It’s just you’re being unprofessional and and if you wait till oh, it’s going to be you especially if you finish a clean it’s actually more than what we agreed upon, even if there’s a legitimate reason, it’s we need to have that intake process better.

Learning About Pricing

Stephanie: So when you when the when you first were getting into it, when it comes to pricing, I’m curious, because this is what newbies do, is they kind of let the the owner dictate, especially with short term rentals, of well, this is my cleaning fee. So this is your budget. How did, how did you start with pricing? And you just mentioned, you know, kind of how it’s evolved a little bit. How has it evolved to today? You know, just overarchingly, when it comes to pricing of these.

Mila: Well, of course, prices go up. You know, when inflation went up? When was that last year, two years ago? Then your price has to go up too. I mean, this is the the game. But at the time, what happened was I had, for about six months, I had a good solid five clients, so this is where I’m still building, also my business. And at the time, um, my pricing was, I had, let’s say, a two bedroom townhouse. I was only charging 84 bucks or something like that, because it was really cheap. Because what I did was, the way I priced it in my head was each space was 25 bucks, because each place would take about this is just my thought. This is not how it is. But I thought, okay, each place is probably going to take an hour. 25 times an hour. That’s not bad, you know, I’m saying. So I was, except for the kitchen, that might have to be a little bit more. So that’s how I’ve kind of priced it in my head. It’s, okay, living room. Or if you have two living rooms, so you the living is 25 this 125’s The bedroom is 25 The bathroom is 25 so that’s how I kind of, came up with the numbers in my head, um, and then plus the whole space. And so I actually, when I came back, I told you the story. I came back from traveling, I entered, actually, at the same time, which I was also critical, I entered a pitch competition. Oh, okay, they had a pitch competition, and it’s, the business that wins, it gets $10,000 or something wow. Okay, yeah, so I signed up for the competition for the travel app. And fast forward, my mentor said, if you want to sign up for hosting. For you probably would have won. Yeah, I did it for the travel app. And I met this mentor during that time, because, since it was the city of Houston, you it’s, you know, so it’s the government, so you had to use SBA. So, yeah, so score.org provided the mentors. It was FDA, but score.org provided the mentors, and that’s also set up that. So he was one of the mentors that every Saturday, one of the mentors had to go up and do a presentation, and he did one on marketing, and he was the best mentor. And I ended up interviewing him on my channel too, because I love him so much. He helped me so much. So he had already retired. He still retired. So he retired, and so he would take the time every Wednesday to meet with me for coffee, and I told him my prices, and he was, Oh, this. So that’s how I ended up having to raise my prices. And I was, I’m afraid. I don’t want my, you know, the same song and dance. I don’t want my clients to leave me. And he’s, first of all, you just started, calm down, you know, you still should. You’re open to to change your prices and pricing changes. And so he made me, it’s not that I came up with prices. every time I met him, he would come and look at my thinking process as to why I priced it that way. And then he would agree or not, and then that’s how I kind of, came up with my pricing also, yeah, I would come back to him, and I’m, Okay, what about this price? And he’s, Well, you say you just don’t do cleaning, and that’s how we are able to have clients that can live in London, Australia, and they’re not here, because the whole idea is taking care of your home while you’re not here, while I’m traveling. That’s all, you know. So he’s, you do a whole lot more than that. You’ll Report. If the grass needs to be, you know, mowed, you’ll report if the pool is turning green, you you do all this other stuff. So you need to raise the price. So then you factor all those things in. And if there’s pet hair, or if there was, if they stayed longer than 30 days, they’re definitely not picking up a mop in a vacuum, right? So then you gotta factor so it was a lot of nuances in the business that I had to learn that even though he didn’t know he’s, you gotta charge for all this stuff, he knew basics, you know?

Stephanie: Oh, I got the pricing. Yeah, no. And then that’s the reason I wanted to ask and and really highlight that. It’s how we start with pricing is not how we we end in pricing. We all have to start somewhere. And you just, the biggest thing is that you’re highlighting is that you were learning as you went and you actually made changes, instead of just keeping complaining about, Oh, I’m not making enough with all this work. It’s, well, then tell the next person a higher price, and that’s all you need to do.

Growing the Business

Stephanie: So So you start getting these, these couple clients, you have about five. What does it look like for you? Then when it comes to getting other vacation rental clients, where they all finding you on your website? Or were you procuring them or or, what is the mean for you now? How do you get clients now? And does it, did that evolve over time from before?

Mila: Hmm, yes, it has evolved over time, but not in the best way, if that’s okay. So because, you know, at the time, I was crying and I was hustling, so at the time, how I got my my Okay, so we’re saying I had five good clients. So in this time was funny, because I’m working a lot. I’m working all the time. I was single, and, you know, now you want to make room for dating, because now you’re doing okay, because I was not dating when I’m broke. Okay, I don’t want anybody feeling sorry for me or trying to manipulate me, or whatever the case may be while I’m struggling. Let me struggle in peace. So I I just don’t, you know, sometimes people feel like they have a hand over you, and I don’t need that. I’m focusing on getting myself out of this hole and trying to be successful. So once I started feeling better about myself and feeling I have upper hand now, I’m I’m working, I’m busy. So then I started dating. And so I met my husband. He was my boyfriend at the time, and so he actually, how we met was Harvey happened, which was a flood that happened. Go figure. Houston, I had, I got flooded in, the flood, and we met online. We met on Tinder. And, yeah, he came from, he’s from Belarus originally. So he had only been in the United States for, at the time, a year. So he had already got a job, and he was working for a cable company, and they put cable internet in your house. You need cable internet goes to your house. So that’s what he did, and that’s why he came from Denver over here, because they brought a group of contractors and say, Hey, you get paid more if you double contracted for three months over there and go back home. So that’s how we met and we started. We dated fast. I mean, we got married in eight months. So. Oh, very fast, my business started to roll. I’m starting to get clients. I’m in a relationship. And so what happened was, I did a lot of things at the time, so I was also, adding some manifesting things. I hate that word, because it sounds magical and stuff. I just, I just wish people you would understand, it’s, I guess, about intent, making an intent. So what I did on my website, one of the things that I did was put now in Dallas. I’m in Houston. I don’t have a lot going on in in Houston, so I’m, now in Dallas. Because I’m, I want to be in Dallas, but I’m, what if somebody calls me for Dallas? What are gonna do? I was, I’ll figure it out. What happened really was going on. And so I actually got a call from Dallas, 13 units. So that’s, yes, so that’s how that started. And this is while I’m still dating my husband, so I get the 13 units in Dallas. I go to Dallas. I start clean because it’s four hour drive from here. Listen, but they had 13 and they were a company, so I’m, if I can set up two good people in Dallas, I’m good to go. It happened. Oh, yeah, weeks.

Expanding to Dallas and Hiring

Stephanie: How did you get those employees?

Mila: I found them on Craigslist. Oh, okay, let me break it down more. Yeah,

Mila: We use indeed and Craigslist. Now you said, Are people still using Craigslist? Immigrating. People are still using Craigslist. We’ll see immigrating people are still using Craigslist and mostly immigrating people most of the time, they have to speak English to do a job, right? They want English to do this job. So I wrote my ads in Spanish, so I love it, yeah. So that’s, that’s how that happened, for real, because there’s a lot of Venezuelan people in Dallas, and they don’t speak English, and they feel uncomfortable. They feel you know, people still want dignity, dignity and respect too. You know what I’m saying. So this job is perfect. I’m not over you. I don’t care about anything other than the units being clean and the guest is not complaining and my client’s not complaining, bam.

Stephanie: How did you handle you know, we’ve had guests on before who have a, you know, very robust Spanish speaking company, and, and, but the owners are always bilingual, you know. And so for you, do you speak Spanish? How did you handle this? I do,

Mila: But okay,

Stephanie: How did you handle this? You’re so right. It’s just you have this entire workforce of wonderful people who could kick ass for you, and very loyal, hard working but I know for a lot of people that language barrier feels like it’s too hard to overcome, right?

Mila: And that’s all it is. Because I have been outside of the company, not working in the company or operating it at all. I’m over here doing YouTube now, or whatever I’m doing for, the last three years. And so we have a virtual assistant, and we have my husband, who operates everything every day. So between the two, they’re still hiring people who speak Spanish and they don’t speak Spanish. My husband speaks English and Russian, and my assistant speaks English and Tagalog, he’s from Philippines, you know. So nobody but, you know, we, but they communicate in Spanish. We still accommodate them. So the text is in Spanish, Google Translate. It’s amazing, you know. So till this day, they’re still hiring people. We still hire people who speak Spanish without speaking Spanish, because you just welcomed a whole bunch of people. You just welcomed a whole group of people that were not there before, because now you just open the language barrier. I mean, that’s why a lot of Spanish people in even my area. I see them driving Uber. I see them driving Amazon, because they don’t, you don’t feel comfortable speaking Spanish and finding a job that’ll pay them well and all this stuff without speaking the language. So,

Managing Independent Contractors

Stephanie: So you, you just posted on Craigslist in Spanish. You got a couple folks, and did they already know how to for me, the paranoia of quality would be there because, I know how it was trusting those first staff members. And were these? Did you hire them as independent contractors, or w2 employees?

Mila: No independent contractors, because a lot of times people who speak Spanish, they’re very concerned about documentations. Sure, yep. So score.org. I’m telling you, I love them. I will praise their name. So I went back to them, because they have a they have a play, I guess, an office in most cities. So I went to their office, and I’m, Listen, I don’t know. What’s the legality of what’s thing going on, and I think I might have some people, but I don’t know. And he said, You know what, if you hire them as 1099. It’s none of your business. You don’t need to know. So we both not need to know basis, yeah, they’re happy being 1099 I’m happy being you being 1099 so that’s how it works.

Stephanie: Okay, okay, insurance. How do we handle this? I don’t know. I Yeah, but honestly, especially starting out, you know, things, things are not always the ideal situation. You just make it work, which I understand. So, so did you then leave them they were doing good, and then you, you left and came back because you weren’t living there. So, what did you how did that happen? And coordinate? Basically,

Mila: What happens is, this is how I do things, because I also read the law and I understand what they mean. When, why you hire w2 why you hired 1099, and who can do what? And, blah, blah, blah, so, and you can’t train them. So, right?

Stephanie: Exactly. Use the word Yeah.

Mila: Can’t even use the word train. So I drown. I use guidance for everything. But anyway, so I use the word guidance. And no, no, actually, if I use the word, I use guidance. Or I’m just going to show you, and basically, this is what I would do. That’s what I think. You know why? Because they don’t know what to do at all. So they want guidance, because they want this job. They want they want to not have to talk to people or go to clean a house with people in it. They want to be able to go pick up their kids without having to ask permission. They want to be able to do all the stuff they can do with this job.

Training and Quality Control

Stephanie: Did you leave that city then? What I

Mila: Would do is, when I hire somebody, I don’t know why I find it easy in my head only because of the way that I learn. They might want to call it ADHD. I’m not trying to claim a mental disorder, that’s what. I’m not claiming all of that. But the way that I learn is the way that I teach. So I didn’t have any pamphlets or nothing. What I do is and I still do this till this day, and my husband does the same thing. Basically, it’s, you know, we understand that you might have clean, never cleans, or clean residential, or clean commercial, and we know that all of that is different. It’s not the thing. So this is how I would do it. So I start, okay, in the kitchen. Let’s say we go straight to the kitchen. I explain, I guess, the passage or the journey of the guest, yup. Oh, basically, this is a place where people stay for a couple like a hotel. I have to explain it that so that you also understand. You’ve got to check all the spoons when you even when you know they were all there. You gotta check them to make sure that they’re all clean. You gotta check all the knives. You gotta check in the oven, so things like that. So basically, I do a walk through. Mm, hmm. I mean, just like anybody who’s doing commercial cleaning gets a walk through, this is what we would like for you to do. So we just do a walk through and say, This is what you do in the kitchen. This is what you do in the bedroom. The sheets have to be washed. The bed has to be made. If you don’t know how to make a bed, I’m happy to show you, this is how I do the bed. This is how I fold it. This is how I set up the pillows. This is how I fold the towels. Very simply, it’s nothing if you want to put swans, put swans. Show your creativity. Because I also want people to express themselves. I know some places are, do things the same everywhere. But Hello, we’re 1099, so we’re creative. So, um, so that kind of thing. So basically, we just do a walk through with them, and it’s just all talking, and they get it. Oh, so it’s not just that, because what happens is, let’s say it’s your first date. And usually I don’t hire people. Their first interview is a clean, okay, I do everything different, make my life easy. So their first interview is a clean and it’s paid, yes, the

Stephanie: Working interview basically, and it is yeah, ethically, and yeah, I think yeah, pay people for working interviews.

Mila: I think exactly No, you get paid. So it’s basically for me to see if you have even potential to design. I don’t play around. I don’t I’m not giving chances. Some people are, Oh, let’s see how it goes. In two weeks, you get it, or you don’t in this business, and this is it. So, so you do, you you do the interview. And so what happens is pretty much 30 minutes in. It depends how long the clean is supposed to be, about 30 minutes in or an hour in, depending how long the clean is going to be. So if it’s a one bedroom apartment, I’ll be there 30 minutes. If it’s three bedroom I’ll be there in probably, two hours. So I go and I see how they’re doing. How do you feel about what’s going on, well, I did this. I don’t know how you feel about this and how I did this. I was, Well, I would do this. So it’s just, it’s a nice conversation. So I go in the middle, and then I do that for a couple of days, okay, you know, for 10 days. So that, because that’s how I learn, if you’re with me, and you just, you know, say, oh, you know. I don’t know, whenever you see a living room and you see that the table was here, and then now it’s over there, make sure you put it over here. You know, that kind of thing, just things that I see in observing and talking about. And so after that, after three days, they get it. There’s not, you know, and then that’s not really just it, because you gotta make sure. I gotta make sure that they’re only working for me. That’s what I like to do, because I don’t want not, and it’s not a rule or anything. They don’t have to just when I when it comes to cleaning, sorry, when it comes to cleaning that because when you’re doing residential or you’re doing commercial, I feel like they get confused, because a residential cleaner will forget to clean out the refrigerator or commercial cleaner so and then I see that in them, it’s, okay, well, I’ve cleaned residential for 13 years. I can see it because you didn’t clean the refrigerator, you know, to check or or the drawers you didn’t think to check, because you don’t do that in other people’s houses, but you have to check the drawers to make sure nobody leaves guns and drugs, because that’s what happens, and you don’t want the next guest to find that kind of stuff. So it’s stories when we pass by the the drawer, I’m, oh, there was one time that, you know, yeah. So it’s then they remember, oh man, I gotta check it. Or, you know, oh man. things are found under the bed to get, you know, so it’s just those kind of simple things. It’s various, it’s it’s complicated, but it’s also simple. I hate when people it’s

Stephanie: True, no, it’s very you make such a valid point about that. It is wildly different than residential because it is, it’s hotel room esque, and we have to think of it as such, although it’s just a lot more varied and unique than a hotel room, where those are a lot more standard, where a vacation rental could be so many different things, very unique. I mean, I’ve seen some crazy ones on we actually, we clean a couple domes they’re literal, domes out in the wood. It’s woods. It’s very cool, but they’re unique, you know, and they sell very well because of that uniqueness. So it’s just, it’s not the same as as houses. So it sounds like, yeah, you got some really good folks right away in the beginning. And did things just keep, keep taking off from there. And what were some of the hiccups that you were experiencing from from a growing pains perspective?

Handling Growth and Challenges

Mila: I don’t know. I think I was always prepared for an influx, that I was mentally preparing for it. I think I was probably asking for it too. Yup. So because my mentor, he would be, Well, what happens if, you get 50 units tomorrow? I was, I’ll figure it out, that’s for sure. So what happened was also when all this starting to grow, and I have my 13 units in Dallas, yeah, I, I, yeah, I did have 13 units in Dallas, and I had, basically, I don’t know, probably 60 cleans. So I had 30 cleans in Houston a month, and maybe 60 in Dallas a month, something, very, still small. And so what happened was, my husband wanted to go back to Denver. We were still dating, and I was, Okay, well, I’m only doing 30 cleans a month. I have two ladies who clean. I hire them. And that was another thing I want to say is, when you hire them, I like to keep them, so I just give them a lot of work. Just keep them busy, you know, so they don’t go anywhere else. Because not only do they get better at the job, you know, they’re doing it all the time, they get better at the job, and then, and then, you know, I pay them enough to stay with me. So that’s my little formula for not having high turnover too, because I don’t have high turnover.

Payment Structure and Team Management

Stephanie: Were you paying to just put a little pin in that. Where were you paying them? Percentage? Do you pay flat rate? Do you pay hourly? How do you handle that? I pay per unit, rates per unit. That’s what I was wondering. Because I think that that’s probably very common with rental cleaning companies is that that makes a lot of sense, you know. So basically, does every do you do that by size? Like, this unit? Is this rate this unit? Like, is it? Yes, you’re very set. this is how it

Mila: Is, okay? And I give them the freedom to know in the beginning, because a lot of times, sometimes they’re afraid to speak up. You know how us women are sometimes say, oh, that took too long. So in the beginning, I tell them, Listen, if you find a party house and there’s a bunch of trap bags and stuff, take pictures, because we’re not going to ask the client after to pay more, because they like to get upset about that when you’re in the middle of it before anything happens, take pictures and say, this is going to be a lot longer than I thought. Send me the pictures. I’ll send it to the client. If they agree, we’ll keep going. If they don’t agree, you Peck yourself stuff and go. So that’s how we do it. It’s, okay, they so we, we’re, we’re communicative. I think that’s another thing that I think makes us successful, is we’re always talking to everybody. We’re talking to our team, we’re talking to our clients. You know, we’re always pinging back and forth. So as long as, there’s a good communication, I think that makes everything go very well.

Stephanie: Oh, gosh. And it’s, it’s, so it’s truly the, the tenant of successful business ownership. I mean, heck, I had we have our team meetings on Monday, just this morning. It’s guys, let us know if you are going to be running more than 15 minutes over the allotted time, because we need to be able to, charge for that. And if we don’t communicate that, we can’t charge for what you know. So it’s just, it’s amazing. you think it would be simple, but it’s such a lot of people are not good at communicating or not understanding the importance of it and the the domino effect of poor communication. So it’s, it’s something we’re just having to drill into their heads, 100 times a week.

Mila: Yeah, exactly. But in our case, we’re, you get paid more. See, you want to complain about the word, we can get paid more. So if you don’t, if you want to get paid more, report, report,

Stephanie: Yep, they’re incentivized to do so. So, so you really, yeah, you had a, had a good team. So you guys moved back to Denver. Then am I assuming?

Expanding Operations

Mila: Well, no, so we will. So we got, we, I had never been to Denver. I’m not a cold person, yeah, someplace cold. So we did, we did an eight month lease, and so it was going to end in November, or something. So what happened was, my husband went back, and he started working in his field, the Kegel field, yeah, and I, and I was thinking, Okay, well, Denver is more touristy, right? There’s more people going there, in and out, so let me start a Hostkeyper there. Maybe I’ll do better than Houston. That’s not what happened. What happened was I was there for a week, and I got a call from a company that had called me a month before, saying, we have, we have, 12 units. Can you clean or 13 years? Can you clean them? And I’m, Yeah, you know, ask me how big my team was, and I didn’t have a team at all. I have two people so, but I embellished, because I know what I can do. You gotta do

Stephanie: What you gotta do in the beginning to make yourself seem big that really is. It’s, puff that puff that chest out.

Mila: Just back it up. Only if you think you can,

Stephanie: I think you know just what you’ve said multiple times. It’s funny because we I have an episode that hasn’t gone live yet, but it’s with my customer relations manager, Katie, and I said to her, I was, you know, I think one of my traits of success is I deeply believe in my ability to figure shit out. I know I can figure it out. I know that what I, I may not know how, but it’s gonna happen. And you keep saying that about yourself too, of I’ll figure it out. And that’s you just, you just have to have this belief in yourself, and that’s built over the reps of you figure something out, something new comes at you and you figure it out, and it just makes you really confident in yourself. You know,

Mila: Absolutely, I think that’s the invisible part of it that people you don’t see, and people don’t see is the part that you have to believe in yourself to get at some point, that billionaire didn’t get there, just rolling over in the bed, they believed in themselves some way, somehow to get to that point. So you better start believing in yourself, and nothing’s going to start moving, obviously, you know, so absolutely, yeah. So we were in Denver for a while, so I started one week there. I get a call. They’re, well, we have, um, 13 units. And I’m, Yeah, I’ll be there. But they really had they really had 60. They had eight actually, but they were they just,

Stephanie: Were they bad at counting?

Landing the Big Contract

Mila: No, well, what? Well, that’s what, something that you have to learn in the industry too is because in this industry, it was at the time, I don’t know about now, it was so hard to find a vacation rental cleaner that they would have to hire more than one cleaner. Because residential also, the times are different. When you go to clean, you can start at 8am and vacation rental usually starting at 11. So it’s also you can’t you have you mostly have to separate it somehow. It’s hard to juggle the two. So because I only did that, and so I realized, okay, they they prefer to have one cleaner, even though they hire multiple cleaners, and because you deal with one owner, right? If that cleaner did bad, then you have to call that owner. If that cleaner did bad, then you have to, you know, that room wasn’t clean. You gotta call that owner. They prefer everybody and pay one person too, pay one company, deal with one person. So I was, Oh, I can take advantage of this, you know. let me prove that I am your only one. And so I did that without knowing. So they’re, listen, we had another company, but we like how you do things. They’re out. So they, they move me in. So I got all 68 Wow. Can you imagine they, they gave me, 40 and then 48 at the time, in pieces. So the that’s how it happened, first they said four. They first, they said 13. I was, Okay, I get back to Houston, they say 40. I’m, wow, because that day the other company had really messed up. And so they were, we’re not we’re done with them. So then they’re, 40. And so I hired enough people, the hiring game, I hired enough people, and then the next month, I went the. Back to Denver, and I’m, wow, my boyfriend’s gonna break up with me because I’ve got time for him. I’m, busy, but also I’ve been dreaming about this, yes, you know, being an independent businesswoman. So I was, sorry, sir, why I’m busy. So I came back to Denver, and then can you imagine when i By the time I came back the next month, the same week, they called me, I heard you’re in Austin. I was, Man, I’m not in Austin, but I can be there. And you, you guys, let me do it. Let me do it again. They said, I guess they must have had a hard time. So I found a family in Austin. Amazing, amazing. Till this day she’s calling me. Do you have something, um, so amazing family in Austin, the the my hire, she did mostly the the weekdays, but on the weekends, Austin is really busy, so she bring her whole family, and they would do that the whole weekend. So it

Stephanie: Would the whole family would clean for you, on the weekends,

Mila: Yeah, the mother, the mothers want to hire, than her, her husband and their two kids, they’re old, they’re college age, so they all paid. And so that was that was amazing, because we had one building, actually, we had two buildings, so they were all in two different buildings. So it made it easy to for them to do the work. These, apartment complexes, or, what? What were these buildings? Apartment complexes? Yeah, okay, the the clients that we were dealing with at the time were a lot of startups. So basically, let’s say you’re you Stephanie, you know what, I have a rental is basically rental arbitrage. You have an existing apartment building. You go to them and say, Hey, I have this business that, you know, I rent out to other people, and you make this much money, don’t worry, whatever happens in the contract, you’re going to make sure, we’re going to make sure you get this and maybe a little bit more, you know, every month. And so these people were getting, two floors in a an apartment complex, or 20 units in an apartment complex. And so that’s how they would operate. And then they would hire us to do everything else on the ground, basically,

Stephanie: Wow. So what year was it that you got this, this giant opportunity, basically, with these huge chunks of rentals, do you remember what year it was? The second

Mila: Year? Yep, yeah, man, that would have been 2017

Stephanie: 2017 Gosh, and that, I love that you’re height because I know for a lot of people, it does start out very, very slow, and it doesn’t feel like you have no idea when something like this is going to get dropped into your lap. Because we’ve had that happen too, with, you know, I’ve said on the podcast many times, we had when all of the Afghan refugees came over to America a few years ago, our military base got 15,000 of them, and we got the call to clean the barracks for six months that they every single day three,

Mila: Arizona. Was it Arizona? No, my

Stephanie: Business is in Wisconsin. I’m in Georgia, but my business is in Wisconsin. But they were all over. They were all over the country that basically any military base that could withstand taking in refugees in this level, they put them all over. And so we got the and so, literally, from one day, 30 days later, it’s, holy shit. this is, this is crazy, you know what I mean? And that’s exactly what happened to you. of, right? Oh my gosh, yes, I will figure it out. And that’s exactly what you did. It sounds like you figured it out, yes.

Mila: Oh, and they, they kept trying to give me. They wanted to give me, 90. How many? Okay, let me be real. How many did I think another 30 in Dallas? And I was, going too far, it was not putting a strain on my relationship and all this stuff. Then I was, Okay, I gotta slow down. So I wanted to tip everything, but we’re moving, and it’s going well, so don’t overflow. So what happened at the time was now I’m getting Austin, and so my husband’s watching, he’s getting to have to get up at six o’clock in the morning through cable. He’s, I’m going to work with you. I’m going to, I’m working with you. And I’m, No, you’re not. But my husband’s stubborn, extremely stubborn guy, which I do appreciate, because my daughter’s the same, and so they don’t take no for an answer, which I appreciate. And so I’m, Well, I was so annoyed about it, too, because, you know, I’m, I work so hard. I was so annoyed in this nobody’s

Stephanie: I’m sure that there was that, that loss of independence, potentially, of, I built this and, want, you know, and, you know, the the genuine strain that it can put on relationships to work with your spouse. I mean, you’ll buy heads potentially. So how did you guys navigate? Is it you guys both just have very clear responsibilities and that? Is that how you navigate the business together?

Working with Your Spouse

Mila: Well, now that’s how it is. Yes, that’s how it is. Um, now it’s he’s over everything because we butt heads, I don’t know, three years ago, and I was, You know what? I’m out. I’m out. I need a break. Anyways. I’m, You know what? You think you got it? Go out. Go ahead and do it. Then that’s how I am. And he learned nothing. I’ll just put it that way. I just put it that way. It was nice to sit back and watch because, you know, but at the same time, with much respect to my husband, because he’s been able to keep up the business, he’s still, he’s not a businessman, so he doesn’t look for more business. He just manages what we get through the interview. So basically, for your question before is, how do we do it? We before we get inquiries from our website. But also, I was hunting people down. I love one. It’s a game. But, um, so I would search the internet. Even now you just search the internet be be creative and clever to find vacation rental cleaning businesses, property management companies. And so I would search them, and I would put, their business name, their phone number, their email, and just introducing myself because they were my target audience. Why? I don’t even pay for ads, by the way, I’ve tried now and every now and then, sprinkle here and there, but I don’t well for where we are keeping it in the, you know, six figure range. Mm hmm. We don’t, we don’t do any advertising. Now, if I want to hit the millions, I probably should do some advertising and be ready to buck up and all that stuff. But for the time being being able to hunt people down and just letting them know that you exist, because not everybody’s going to know that you exist. So just saying, Hey, we only focus on vacation, rental cleaning, short term rental cleaning, Airbnb cleaning, whatever term you want to use it. And this is what we do, and this is how we can help you. And so in that short little message, they’re, hm, most of the time, they’re always, they’re always looking for somebody new. Anyway, half the time, so you might catch them at that time. And I was always thinking on that. So that’s what I would do a lot once we got the cleaning and everything operating, and I no longer have to clean. Now, I’m focused on getting clients people,

Handling Scheduling Challenges

Stephanie: And getting them into your system and and so one of the biggest issues, you know, you had already touched on this, and I’d love to hone in on this in detail, a little bit is one of the biggest struggles that residential cleaning companies have going into vacation rentals is the time of the turnover, and that it truly does not work to have a your residential cleaner who’s got a cleaning in the morning. How do you fit that in in the middle of the day? And that’s for us, for us, Airbnb and vacation rentals exploded after COVID. we’re in really rural Wisconsin, my business, and so, you know, nobody wanted to stay in a hotel. So all of a sudden, we’re, saying yes to all of this, but we’re residential, commercial, and so we ended up, you know, after a couple years of this, we’re, you know what? we’re going to drop down and, you know, up the prices, and cut our clients in half, because in our area, these owners were not ready, these were their vacation homes that they wanted to rent out while they were not there. And so a lot of them were just not prepared to actually do what needed to be done to be become a proper vacation rental. But what? But what I mean by that is laundry on site, garbage on site, we’re hauling laundry, we’re hauling garbage. They just weren’t ready, they were not structurally ready to actually be a vacation rental, if you will, and so. But that all all aside when it comes to scheduling, and you know, I’m sure you have a lot of same day turnovers. Do you just have a shit ton of people? Or how do you handle being able to flip, the scheduling of it all. Can you tell me a little bit what that looks like? Is it first come first serve? Because that’s what we’ve we’ve had to do with our owners. once that slots gone and we’ve got, you know, all of, all of the cleaners that were available. How do you manage the schedule with short term rentals when all of the turnovers are like, not all of them, some of them, you know, you have a day or whatever. But that’s a challenging part. Can you describe that? Yeah, I actually

Mila: Didn’t. Wasn’t so challenging after you put a price to it. So all our clients, at one point, you could book all the cleans ahead of time. I always told them this trick, once somebody books your place at the day that they’re checking out, book your clean don’t wait for the last minute, because you call me last minute. I’m also charging you. You don’t know, I have to scramble and redo the schedule. I don’t have to do that, but I will you pay me extra, you know? Maybe I’ll make some time, because really, we’re busy, you know, so and then next time, you’ll learn to do it ahead of time, so that you’re, you’re inconveniencing me at this at this point, and it’s hard for people to digest, but a lot it’s hard to find cleaners, good cleaners sometimes. So, um, so what it is, is, when you, you’re they fill out this form to say, you know, how many bedrooms, how many bathrooms, what day the clean is going to be done. We have a button that says, Is this a same day clean? And you have to mark yes or no, because if it’s yes, then we’re going to make sure you have to pay for extra. It’s 10 bucks, 15 bucks, yeah, and depending on how many bedrooms, so we had, Okay, if it’s a one bedroom, 10 bucks, if it’s two bedroom, 25 bucks, just change the number in the front, three bedroom 45 bucks, four bedroom 45 bucks to designate a same day clean. Because so that makes also the clients the host think, because a lot of times they think that you’re just a machine, and that somebody checks out 11, somebody’s coming in at three, and you have a six bedroom house, and you think it’s just gonna get done. no. So it makes them think, Okay, well, I won’t book same days for this particular house because it’s gonna cost me too much, you know, or so, basically, that’s how it goes. Basically, if you have a you want it done first come, first serve, you have to let us know. And so that’s how we schedule. It’s easy, because it’s, okay, well, we have these five houses that need to be done before three o’clock, bam, bam, bam, bam. These, these are the one five people who are going to go there. And then it cleans after. They clean those then we schedule them and trickle down those cleans. So that’s how we do it. It’s pretty easy. You know, if you want to your kitchen, yeah, for it,

Stephanie: Do most of your cleaner? what’s a typical shift? Or is it truly, you know, very variable, depending on what their availability is. Do most of your folks start around 11 because I’m, I know for us, there is some vacation rentals we can get in right away, because it’s not a same, same day turnover. So it still is. It’s, you know, that meme with the ladies and the numbers behind you, that’s what it feels like looking at, because you’re trying to do scheduling as intelligent as possible, right? And, I So it’s challenging, especially with with what your situation is, of having so many in the same place, you don’t want to be sending you gotta you want to be as intelligent as possible with scheduling

Mila: Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, we’ve had, we, we’ve had one day that it was, 50 cleans in one day and 25 were same day. Everybody was on deck. My husband was out there. I was out there. Our baby was out. There was no everybody’s out, yeah, so we would it did help that we had a lot of units in one building, because you could go to all of them and start the wash, yep, then all of them, and then put them in the dryer. Then you got the towels and the ladies just focus on, you know, cleaning all the surfaces and all the floors and everything in between, and we’ll make the beds, so we make some kind of quick rotation that person that day, but, um, so with our timing, that’s what I mean. It’s, that’s why they my, my cleaners have to be exclusive to me, you know, because if they’re doing residential, all that, all that, you know, the technicality of it all makes it difficult. So we, because we only do vacation rental, the timing is awesome. It’s perfect,

Stephanie: Yeah. And the reason I highlight that is it can work so beautifully if that’s what you focus on, and it’s, so that’s why it’s it’s hard when some of the owners who they want to do residential, commercial and vacation rental. And it’s, logistically that’s very challenging. I’m not saying it can’t be done. We do it, but we we specialize residential, commercial, right? Vacation rental is only, if it, you know, if it makes sense. And honestly, we don’t take any more on because it’s, in our area, the the volume isn’t enough, because in your area, highly populated, you know, people want to go vacation and stay I’m sure. do you have a slow season? I’m curious, is there a slow season for you? Yeah, yeah. We does it winter? January, February or No, no, because we really

Seasonal Fluctuations

Mila: Holidays. Yeah, people are still traveling. January was actually good. February is a little bit, John, but the season starts mainly in April. It starts trickling up in in March, and then it kind of slows down again when the kids come out of school. So around now May, it’s going to start to go down a little bit. May, June, July, June and July are usually dead times, unless our host, they used to get traveling nurses or students that would stay the whole weekend. So they, if you get lucky with that in the in the Texas area, but mostly those are the slow time. And they start picking up again around October, November, because then you have in November, Thanksgiving, October, a lot of conferences, and December, and then it goes back down a little bit.

Stephanie: Okay, so it’s kind of, it’s variable and and it it’s just a good point to be had, of, again, vacation rentals, it can be amazing, but there is typically a flow to it. But really, in cleaning businesses, there’s almost always a bit of a, you know, there’s, there’s some downtime. It just depends where you are for sure, so you know where. So I’m curious, now, current day, what does, what does your business look like from, how many do you have on a team? What’s a typical appointment number? either per month, or however you guys calculate that, what’s, what’s, what’s normal for you guys now,

Current Business Operations

Mila: Well, I used to do the schedule, and then when I didn’t, I, when I didn’t manually do the schedule, I used the software that every time you logged on at the top of the month, it will tell you how many cleans you had that month. So it would be easy. Yeah, it’d be easy to be, Okay, we’ve, we’ve had 1000 cleans this month, or something. But, mm. Uh, now I am not on top. I’m not on, I’m not looking at every day. I’m not on, and I should be, because now I want to grow this business. So that’s the that’s the other thing. It’s, I went off to do other things, so now I’m back here. Um, it’s tightening everything. So as far as our team in each city, so in Houston, we probably, we have a small team of eight. We still we have a small team of four in Dallas, and another small team actually in in Austin. We actually contract somebody to get our claims. Because people see Hostkeyper the name, they’re, Hey, do you clean in Austin? And we just contact our our partner over there. But we do it ourselves in Dallas and in in Houston. So yeah, we’ve always had a pretty much small team, even in our busiest times where we were doing 99 in Dallas, I only had, I only had eight people. There eight to 12 people. And I say eight to 12 because you might, we might have eight main people. But I love when they’re, whoa, can my can my sister help me sometimes? Or can my, you know, adult daughter help me sometimes? Or can my mom come help me? So I’m, Yeah, as long as I just have to pay one person, and you can pay them, that’s fine with me. So I say as well, because if they want to bring help. I don’t mind if they bring help. It’s faster for them.

Stephanie: Yeah, especially if you’re paying a per, unit price. I mean, that works a lot more easily for sure. So, yeah, it sounds like, I mean, overall, you’ve, you’ve gone through several evolutions of the business, bringing your husband in, things like that, if you were to, you know, kind of assess and analyze yourself as an owner and a leader. What kind of traits would you say you’ve developed over time, or what kind of things have you had to laid a rest in yourself in order to push through and be successful? If anything stands out of, I really had to change this part of myself in order to make this happen. Does anything stand out to you?

Leadership Lessons and Personal Growth

Mila: Um, I think something does. I would say that. I would it’s, it’s actually a personality trait that I could exercise, that I am still a little bit weary about, because growing up, I mean, it, it did kind of influence me. My dad was in the military, and I’m around people who are disciplined every day, waking up, going to do their exercises, and, you know, shining their boots. And so you see, you see, and you wake up to discipline all the time. What did

Stephanie: You have to lose? what did you have to leave behind? Yeah, so

Mila: In my personality, I kind of, don’t I think what has helped, and, you know, what also doesn’t help, as my personality is, I don’t take any bullshit, basically, from people. So if I already, I guess, I guess I can say I’m really good intuitively. So it helps the hiring process. That’s why, you know, basically, if you have a good, strong team, then you’re good to go. So focus on that, you know. So that’s, that’s, that’s how I feel so when people want to be a little bit funny or slack a little bit, I am a human, and they’re a human, and I recognize that, and I respect it, you know. But sometimes there’s some things you just cannot let go, even though, if it’s small, you know, um, and it’s, it’s, it’s almost kind of a military style, I’m not giving any chances for certain things. And I think not giving chances makes me a tighter ship. And even though I think everybody loves our company, but that’s the part that matters. It’s not about you know, I don’t run a tight ship I’m behind your back and I’m micromanaging you. I don’t do it. I do it in I respect you enough to give you the space to do what you’re supposed to do, and if you show me that you can’t do it, I’m not going to give you. You’re done. You’re toast. And some, I think a problem with other people is they give people chances, and they’re, Oh, well, this excuse. Well, this is my daughter, or this is my son, or they have this going on, I don’t care. I mean, I do care, but you’re also affecting my business, so I feel like you got to be a little bit cutthroat, and I think that’s the part of me that is scary, scared to use, because you’re as a woman, I’m supposed to be Jimmy or and polite and politically correct, but that doesn’t make me any money, you know, so I gotta be straight And I’m and everybody’s real. So that’s what I like about my team, too. We’re real people. Oh,

Stephanie: I love that. And, you know, especially with vacation rentals it is, it’s showtime. You got one shot, one opportunity, you know, you either nail it or you don’t. And it’s, it’s way the stakes are higher, because you are affecting somebody else’s. Business you screw up at somebody’s house, they’ll give you another chance. When you’re also never affected you’re not affecting their livelihood, whereas, you know, if you affect their rating, it that’s a really big deal. And I also love that, you know, you you hinted at and just the the concept of excellence and holding people to a really high standard is a wonderful thing for them, and though it may not feel good in the moment, or it may feel like you’re being a hard ass honestly every time we say, I believe in you so much that I’m not going to let you get away with shoddy work, because I know what you’re capable of, and honestly that’s what people need. They need you to believe in them in a way of, I know you can do great work, and if you’re choosing not to, you got to get off the boat, it’s just not going to work. And so I’m sure that that has absolutely contributed to your success. Because one, when other people come on, you know, people talk, it’s, Hey, you can’t, you can’t pull the wool over her. You can’t, you can’t, you know, Bs, her basically,

Mila: Yeah, and in, you said, in the same breath, empowering them, you know, because it actually does, after you said that, I’m, yeah, it actually does, holding them accountable. I used to, I don’t do it now, but I used to hold, monthly get togethers, you don’t have to show up as your 1099 I made it clear, you don’t have to show up your 1099 but we’re gonna have donuts and we’re gonna have coffee. And if you wanna know what’s going on in the company, show up if you feel. And everybody always shows up. Everybody wants their voice to be heard. You know, that’s why I don’t really when people are, Oh, w2 you can have a meeting. These people want their voice to be heard. They want to tell you, I don’t think this is fair, and you have to be there to listen, because they’re the ones who is creating your business for you. So if they’re happy, you’re happy. So yeah, and no, they have to have a level of respect for themselves too, and I hope that too, because sometimes in this this business, people try to disrespect you on a daily basis, try to make you

Stephanie: So it’s the plight of the cleaner, and that’s let’s I see our roles, especially as women leaders in the industry, to we need to change how people view this industry and or if they’re not going to change the way they see it, not reward bad behavior, not reward disrespect by not calling it out, or by not canceling services about

Dealing with Discrimination and Disrespect

Mila: This, because this is going on a day with, you know, a Client being upset with a cleaner for something very minimal. Because, you know, I guess the status So, but, you know, how

Stephanie: Do you how do you handle that? Do you, I know, every situation is different, but can you kind of explain your thought process in handling, how, you know, getting everybody’s voices heard, but then at the end of the day, you gotta make the call, right? you gotta respect your people,

Mila: Right? I hope I handle it differently now, because I did even a whole YouTube on this, because there was one time. So this is kind of a similar situation going on today, but in that situation a couple of years ago, I allow my cleaners to bring their small children to work. I don’t have a problem with this. Is how I decide to build my business in that if you feel your kid can’t go to school today, and you are comfortable taking them as long as they’re not, you know, running amok, or most of the time they’re sitting on a cell phone looking at a dog on screen, you know, they’re very well behaved and not doing anything. So, you know, if, and we’re moms, We’re doing everything at the same time, I have to honor that. It’s not I don’t want to be how it is at corporate. That’s I didn’t it, and it’s not understanding, and it’s not even almost humane to be It’s this, it’s this, and we’re going to pretend you don’t even have kids. This is crazy. So if you need to bring your kids sometimes, you can bring your kids sometimes. And apparently, the building manager, she didn’t have nothing to do with our business, but she came to my cleaner and said, I’m going to call CPS if you don’t get this kid chocolate, sir, yes. Oh my gosh. And guess what? We even got fired because I called to speak to her, and I didn’t even get to speak to her. I spoke to her, I spoke to her secretary, and I said, you know, here’s my phone number. If she has a problem, she needs to call me. And I think what she did was threw her stones and hit her hands, because what she did immediately was called my client and said they need to be out of the building. I want them out. Yeah, oh my God, by proxy. Wow, yeah. We got fired that way. And can you imagine, you know, how disgusting and this is going on today’s. Information. It’s actually not even the client this time is actually the guest. Oh, but really, stay clean. So she was supposed and she didn’t want it to be clean unless she was there. So, and the thing about it is, I mean, nobody knows. I mean, it’s not public knowledge, but we’ve never been accused of, you know, stealing anybody’s anything. Look it up. You know what I’m saying, and there are people who think certain things about people, and therefore they don’t that their kid is with them and making up stuff, and it’s very complicated and annoying. But this is colonialism. I mean, this is what it is. This is the structure that we work in. So a lot of times it’s, you don’t the way that we do things. You’re fired. And I was okay with it, and I’m still okay with it, but wasn’t things different? You know? Because he’s, Well, this is money, you we should deal with it different. So before, I was a little bit more warrior, about it, and there’s different ways to handle things, instead of, you know, f you and your and your money and everything. I don’t have to do it, you know what I’m saying. I could do it differently so those past experiences, I think this time, I would be a lot more calm about it and not angry about it, because it’s a situation. Is very angry, because, you know, why did that lady have to interject herself for what and threaten somebody and their child? If somebody threatened me and my child and said, I’m calling the CPS on you, that’s, that’s a threat, not me calling you, saying, if you have a problem you need, you need to deal with me. So it’s still a situation that we’re dealing here.

Stephanie: I’m happy that you had one that’s a terrible situation, and I’m sorry that you you’ve had to deal with that, but it highlights, sometimes some of the shit that we have to go through as owner, you literally could not prepare for it. some, you know, even this past year, I’m, Ah, that was not on my bingo cards that that would happen, that would be getting sued for this, or whatever is happening. It’s, oh my gosh. But that that is, that’s business ownership, is we get that’s we get to deal, we get to deal with the problems that other people would not want to because that’s, you know, what we’re signing up for. And it sounds like, you know, you’re still learning and evolving and and so what for you? What do you see the the next year holding and what do you you know, you said you had YouTube so tell us about what your YouTube channel is, where we can find you, if we want to, we want to follow along. Oh, thank you.

Future Plans and YouTube Channel

Mila: So, um, for this year, I plan on growing the the cleaning business. It’s our bread and butter. It does well. It gives me the opportunity to travel and make YouTube videos, you know, so that it’s, um, a blessing, and even all the stuff that goes with it, all the interactions with people that you have, it’s still a blessing, you know, it’s our my it’s our experience, you know, and it’s, it’s still awesome. Um, so this year I plan on, I’m getting back in. So basically what I’m going to do is just be the sales girl. Is play out because I do, I do playing around with sales and seeing, how I can better my sales skills. So that’s how I see I don’t see it, Oh my God. I gotta talk to people. I used to see it. So now I’m, You know what? Just play the game, and you might get a new client. So that’s how I’m going to be playing it now and then with my YouTube, I have a new YouTube called Mila millions, and it’s Mila millions because I want to influence millions of people to believe in themselves. So it’s a, it’s a, it’s a YouTube about personal development and business kind of, have you read, of course? you read thinking, Grow Rich, I don’t know. Have you heard of John Assaraf? The author of John Assaraf, yes, Yep, yeah. He has the book. The answer. I love that book because he combines business along with, I guess, law of attraction, because that’s what really has been working for me. when I said I put not coming, coming to Dallas soon, you know, that was manifesting some business in Dallas, and that’s what happened. So it’s, it’s those kind of beliefs in yourself that we need to have more conversations about. And so that’s what that’s

Stephanie: About. Oh, I love it. We’ll definitely link it down in the in the show notes, so everybody can go hit that subscribe on Mila’s channel, because this has been so lovely to get to know you and your journey. It really has been an amazing journey. And I’ve just been, dazzled and distracted by your beautiful teeth and smile this whole, I need to get the teeth whitening. nobody look at my mouth right

Mila: Now because veneers, I got them done in Columbia for a fraction of the price, and they’re beautiful. And the they are, she makes them look so natural. It’s all women owned. Sisters, Orthodontist. They’re more on esthetics. So that’s why they’re great in Colombia, their studio, or their their practice, is beauty. Folk, you get coffee, you get mimosa, they’re amazing. And they did amazing job with my teeth. I should plug them in

Stephanie: Just, holy crap, those teeth. And, the thing is, about veneers, they can look really bad. I didn’t even clock that. I’m really good at work, and so, that’s amazing.

Mila: Well, my teeth were usually my teeth were white in the you know, before, but it’s just I was trying to change the alignment of my teeth, and it was just easy to do veneers instead of braces. But yeah, thank you.

Stephanie: Well, there we go. If you want to see more of Mila’s dazzling smile, we will. We’ll be linking her YouTube channel down below. And I just, I so appreciate you taking the time sharing your journey. And yeah, definitely, I’m so happy to have had you on on as a guest. Thank

Mila: You, and thank you for having me. And it was great to meet you. I love you. I love your energy. By the way, I wanted to tell you that your understanding and your conversation, and it just flowed and went so easily. And your other podcast with your guest, it does the same thing, so it says a lot about you. So

Stephanie: Thank you. I love to talk with people, and especially in our industry, because it’s a very special one indeed, and we all have a very strong heart for service and a desire to make that coin. So it’s a beautiful thing.

Mila: You gotta, you gotta, you gotta make that into a quote or something. Oh,

Stephanie: It awesome. Well, thank you Mila and everybody. Thank you for watching hit that like hit that subscribe and hit that comment section and give Mila some love, and we’ll see you on the next episode of filthy rich cleaners guys, bye, bye.

If you enjoyed this episode of The filthy rich cleaners podcast, please be sure to leave us a five star review so we can reach more cleaners like you, until next time, keep your work clean and your business filthy rich.

Note: This transcript has been edited for clarity and readability.

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

• Score.org
• Hostkeyper
• Mila Thee Hostkeyper YouTube Channel
• Pat Flynn’s Smart Passive Income Podcast
• “The Answer” by John Assaraf
• “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill
• Thumbtack –
• Craigslist